Nothing Phone (2) goes official: The sequel better than the original

It's normal to talk about design when discussing phones, but with the Nothing Phone (2), things are a bit more intertwined. 

Similar to the Nothing Phone (1), the exterior design is a very important signature feature of the Nothing Phone (2). The unique Glyph Interface at the back of the device is back with a bang. Comprised of numerous miniature LED lights, this one is very customizable and allows you to "assign different sequences for each contact and notification type". In sync with the lights, taptic vibrations will go off and make the audio-visual-tactile experience complete. 

The new Glyph Interface allows you to set persistent visual notifications for specific apps or contacts, as well as create your own visually augmented ringtones, let the glyph lights display useful information like battery level, and finally, third-party app integration for even deeper personalization. 

The phone is made of recycled aluminum and has slightly curved elements that make it ergonomic and pleasing to handle with the palm of your hand. 

What makes the Nothing Phone (2) click and tick? 

Fortunately, much more exciting hardware than Nothing's first foray onto the smartphone scene. The second Nothing phone boasts the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which might not be as powerful as the most recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but is still perfectly capable of delivering flagship-grade performance and great battery life.

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip powers phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, so you can expect very decent performance numbers!

Starting with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage and maxing it out at 12GB of RAM and 512GB of available storage, the Nothing Phone (2) is up there with most flagship phones as far as memory loadout goes. 

Up front, we have a marginally larger 6.7-inch OLED display with all the standard bells and whistles we've come to expect out of a 2023 Android flagship device––smooth refresh rate, decent sharpness, vivid colors, and very high maximum brightness. 

Much thought has gone into the camera, which now comes with large new sensors on both the main and ultra-wide cameras, as well as an impressive new 18-bit image signal processor that captures 4,000 more sensor data than the Nothing Phone (1). The cameras on the Nothing Phone (1) weren't quite exciting but the Nothing Phone (2) fully relies on software to make its camera truly shine, taking a page out of the thick Google Pixel book. 

First up, the Nothing Phone (2)'s Advanced HDR captures 8 frames of the same scene in order to create a decent HDR scene, whereas the Nothing Phone (1) only took 3 frames. Next up, Nothing's new device uses software Super-Res Zoom and enables a dedicated lossless 2X zoom mode, similar to the iPhone 14 and the Pixel 7 series. 

The Nothing Phone (2) will be available in the US, unlike the Nothing Phone (1).

As far as pricing goes, the device will start at $599 for the entry level 8GB/128GB version, $699 for the 12GB/256GB one, and $799 for the 12GB/512GB variation. 

Pre-orders for the phone in the US, UK, and Europe is kicking off on July 11. The phone officially hits the shelves on July 17, but customers in New York will be among the first capable of purchasing the Nothing Phone (2) on July 11 at 69 Gansevoort St. New York.